It's been said that having Instagram on the iPhone is so common these days that the app should probably just be installed by Apple on all iPhones and make it native to the device. That's how popular the photo sharing platform has become.

To that end, Facebook isn't letting a golden opportunity go to waste. On Monday, the social networking behemoth confirmed that its buying Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. Th deal is expected to close sometime before the end of the second quarter.

To date, it's Facebook's biggest acquisition and one that comes just weeks before Facebook goes public next month on NASDAQ in one of the biggest IPOs in recent Wall Street history.

"We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this afternoon. "We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."

Just last week, much to the dismay of many iPhone loyalists, the Android version of Instagram was released. It saw more than 1 million downloads in the first 12 hours of availability.

The app itself is not too different from a large number of similar apps. Spending a billion dollars on a company that was just looking for a few million bucks is very irresponsible. The Instagram acquisition in perspective.. The downfall of FB has started.